Gish gallop

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In Gish Gallop ( English : Gish gallop ride) is the name for a method of debating , to be where the enemies drowned in a flood of half-truths and his subordinate false or ridiculous assumptions, making it impossible for him is all to refute these postulates . The term Gish gallop was coined by Eugenie C. Scott and named after the creationist Duane T. Gish .

method

The gish gallop tries to cover the other person with a flood of questions, half-truths and false statements and often to jump from one point to the next. The “galloping one” appears to be omniscient, while the opponent in the discussion appears to be incapable and constantly one step behind. Due to the large number of arguments put forward, the opponent is constantly under pressure to explain and it is impossible to invalidate all the points put forward on the spot. Even if you succeed in refuting an argument, you immediately switch to another level of discussion or the explanation is simply denied. The explanation then required costs the opponent a lot of discussion time. In this way, doubts about the ability of the opponent should be created in the audience. The technology works especially live in front of an untrained audience, while the points in question can be checked afterwards during recorded debates.

Countermeasures

  • In the case of an already known discussant, anticipate his arguments and refute them individually.
  • In a structured debate, it is harder to use the gish gallop than in a freeform debate.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b John Grant: Debunk It. How to Stay Sane in a World of Misinformation. Zest Books, San Francisco 2015, ISBN 978-1-936976-68-3 , pp. 55 f .
  2. ↑ a b Martin Neukamm: Popular fallacies and rhetorical stylistic devices: The "Gish gallop" . In: Evolution in the Crosshairs of Creationism . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 2009, p. 318 f . ( PDF; 378 kB, p. 16, chapter 5.7 ).
  3. ^ Eugenie C. Scott: Confronting Creationism . In: Reports of the National Center for Science Education . tape 24 , no. 6 , November 2004, pp. 23 .
  4. ^ A b John Grant: Denying Science: Conspiracy Theories, Media Distortions, and the War Against Reality . Prometheus Books, ISBN 978-1-61614-400-5 , pp. 74 f .
  5. ^ Amy Johnson, The Multiple Harms of Sea Lions . In: Urs Gasser (Ed.): Perspectives on Harmful Speech Online . Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society , S. 14th f . ( PDF; 1.1 MB ).